I heartily. A very, very good issue. Character development, action, pacing, and art are all top-notch. I've noted that Tanghal seems to erase some of Perez's trademark detail, but in this issue we really get a lot of the detail.


The tears of a clown. I think the interplay of distracting humor and pain are a great dynamic for Gar as a character. I have not read the original series though.

There may be an interesting tidbit with Gar powerwise. When he's holding on to the side of Madame Rouge's flying fortress, he says he doesn't risk transforming because it may tear him, and then he stops mid-sentence. Gar's transformation always seem to be depicting as instantaneous, but this makes me wonder if there's actually a transition with the portions of his body rearranging that could mess him up anatomically if worse is applied mid-transformation.

Also, I'm sure if you were saying Zandia was in Africa. The story starts in Africa, but it's mentioned that Zandia is in the Baltic Sea, so they travel pretty far in the issue. Also, a continent is pretty huge, so it's sounds weird to script the  location so generally.


They go to that well a lot, but I don't mind it too much.


I'm so-so on my Doom Patrol knowledge (although I bought and Omnibus and might do a binge read soon), so I couldn't remember and was confused at first. But in Steve Dayton's recounting of Doom Patrol history he notes that the Chief was the leader, and I think I recall reading she was in love with him.



This panel is so, so cool. The Brotherhood of Evil are so ominous and menacing. They look much more dangerous and ominous than the Fearsome Five, for instance, who I thought it was sort of difficult to portray as a threat, outside of Psimon. On one level, I would've like to have seen the Brotherhood actually defeating the Titans where we could see them in action, instead of being off-panel during the battle scene. But on the other hand, it's such a cool story-telling device and a neat trick.

Again, I'm spotty on my Doom Patrol history, but I believe half of the Brotherhood were characters from the original DP run (Zahl, Rouge, Mallah (the gorilla), and the Brain), and the rest are new characters here.

Also, I love the Doom Patrol history lesson. Very well done. Not too rudimentary, but not too detailed for the pacing of the story.



Even though Raven is using her powers to end an imminent danger, given how she's used them in the past and how painful the story makes clear Rita's death is to Steve, it's disturbing. To me, that's a good thing for the story, because Raven works best when she's unnerving. 

On the other hand, it's just that she apologizes again to Wally. This seems like a call back to Raven seeing Hyperiod make Donna fall in love with him, and seeing another aspect of how harmful that manipulation is. And yet, Wally tries to tell her that she doesn't need to apologize and later compliments her skills. This is an interesting dynamic. How much of this is real admiration? How much of this is an after-effect of the manipulation? There's really more to work with for Wally in this issue. Also, I've mention, how his power level might effect how he used. Here, the threat is really big, so his inclusion helps.

I don't usually give grades in my responses, but I'd give this an A- or an A.

In DC Super-Stars Vol #12. Just to be clear, it's incredible offensive. Rape-Of-Ms-Marvel level offensive. Nobody made a big fuss about it because, well, DC Super-Stars?

But don't take my word for it.


12 Horrible Superhero Comic Stories for Women



Captain Comics: Krypton's history just as unstable as its core



After the story Superboy is just a little pissed with the super-teacher, but he is completely indifferent to the ordeal which the poor girl had had to endure.

And please, let's not try to justify him saying things like "it was a different era!". I'm quite sure that even in the 70s brainwashing a girl so someone can take her virginity was frowned upon. And the essay "The Rape Of Ms Marvel" was published only after three years, not thirty. I doubt that in a so short time happened a radical paradigm shift regarding having sex with a woman without her full consent. 

(By the way, I believe that Cary Bates was probably the most misogynist Bronze-Age Superman writer. Look at how he handled the character of Faora.)

ETA sorry shaxper , this is your review thread. We should move this particular discussion in an another thread?

Don't stop on my account. I'm finding this fascinating.


And codystarbuck:



These good folks have made it clear they didn't mean forceful rape. But she was not under her own power and therefore could not give consent, even if Superboy didn't know that. So I agree with how concerning this story is now that I've seen the excerpt in question. Not necessarily concerning to an audience of the time period (nor would they have considered it rape), but disturbing as heck from a modern viewpoint.

And I really don't think it's debatable whether or not intercourse occurred. They've implied it as tastefully as possible, pulling away from the two as they are getting physically closer and then immediately cutting away to Ma Kent stating that Superboy didn't come home last night.

I'm going to put my moderator hat on for a sec and suggest we don't get into a debate about what does and does not constitute rape, though, as that could easily offend/trigger a person if not conducted with the utmost sensitivity.

Just read the Superboy story Thanks MDG. I might be the outlier but I found it to be a sweet story. The robot teacher is a monster, to be sure. Awesome that she was the flight attendant at the end.  Amazing what could be accomplished in a short story. 

You make a point, but I meant the part of the story where Superboy falls in love was sweet. Of course the actions of the Robot was slimy.

You have a point. The problem was the execution.

Well, even Hawkman used a mace.

Right; this is the bigger problem. Throughout the story, the girl is shown as superior to Clark. First, Misty moves to town and is immediately the most popular girl in school. Clark sends her a note via Lana Lang, and soon she's stepping up to him at a sock hop, and showering him with flattery:



While dancing, Clark endures a hallucinatory attack from his robot teacher:



By the way, there's an anachronism in this scene. Bruce Springsteen once commented in an interview that before the Beatles, bands at school dances did not sing; they didn't even have microphones. They just played instrumentally. Cary Bates is thinking of movies he's seen about 1960s high school even though he set his story in "Another decade, best known for Elvis, Eisenhower, Edsels."

Anyway, Clark faces two moral tests at the end of this story. First, he captures a trio of Sasquatches which have escaped from a passing carnival, then decides to set them free. The Robot Teacher applauds him for his moral stance. Note that Superboy is being drawn with Superman's hair curl and squarer jaw as he is a man now.



The second moral test is that one of the Sasquatches seems to throw a rock which kills Misty. Superboy is tempted to kill the Sasquatch in rage but then relents. The sensible plot point now would be to reveal that Misty was just another of the Robot Teacher's illusions. The bizarre revelation that she's a kidnapped, brainwashed American teen being pimped out to Clark should have been the final moral test, leading Superboy to destroy the robot as Zaku suggests. Did this just not occur to Cary Bates? Was "illusion of Misty" the original ending but was changed in the dialogue so that Superboy had sex for real?

The story begins on a mysogynistic note all its own as Jimmy Olsen ogles and comments on the buttocks of adult Misty, now a flight attendant. In the 1960s, early flight attendants were encouraged to make themselves available for traveling businessmen, to encourage repeat business.



Hey waitaminute. Why would a flight from Europe to Metropolis be flying over Smallville? Wouldn't California have been a more appropriate point of origin?

The original story in Adventure Comics #240 (1957, Edmond Hamilton) had  two parts. First the Robot Teacher tested Superboy's control over his abilities:



The second half was a stereotypical "Lana tries to prove that Clark is Superboy, but he gets the best of her" scenario.